Mr Castwelll sounds like a crusty old geezer sitting in his cabin misar the jackpine out in Lovells with nothing better to do these days than pass out opinions.

Take what he says with a grain of salt because he obviously is not well informed. Sure there are no Grayling in the AuSable but lumbering (now called timber management) is alive and well and a significant industry in the area.

Maybe he just wants Sage to give him another fly rod.

OK, now that I have read 40 posts about Mr. Castwell's article, and one of those being his wife taking up for him I have one question.
Where is Mr. Castwell and his response in here.
Now I was not going to get into this discussion, but Mr. Castwell's lack of a response in here and his wife taking up the fray, makes me wonder!!!
A man that says or writes something and believes it, if not he should not say it, should also be up front enough to defend his statements.
His lack of a response, to me speaks louder than the article he wrote.
I have read several post on FAOL and while not all of them, I did not see much of a response their either.
My friends, the few I have (joke) call me JC, sure glad I did not use it on this page.

Christian; I do not think that any company will take a blank they make and have " one " builder put a reel on it " spinning " then do a concept system with the guides, it would take to much time and they do want to make money. I have also seen companies use the cheapest guides on there rods that I would not put on any rod!!

I think that the most important point of this entire episode was pointed out by Bob Balcombe. The only thing that comes out of this is a need for us, as custom rod builders, to make more of an effort to educate our potential customers. And remember that these potential customers are a very small percentage of the fishing public. We have not been the best advocates for ourselves. Maybe a few more articles like this will be enough to kick us in the butt and get us out there to promote our craft in a more effective way. Forgive the generalization. There are obviously some out there who are doing an exemplary job of promoting this thing that we do. I think that anything further that Mr. Castwell has to say on this topic will be in fact damage control. But remember, he is offering his opinion on his website. By nature, most of the users of this site will have an opinion that differs from the one put forth in this article. If we were to ignore all opinions that were not supported by sufficient research and facts, we may find ourselves with a lot less reading to do. I have made posts on this site giving Rainshoadow rods kudos for particular blanks. Should then Pac Bay pull their sponsorship because Tom allowed me to post an opinion that may have cost them the sale of a blank? Lets keep everything in perspective.

Just another opinion

Jeff Hunter

I hope what J Castwell wrote was not what he intended to say. People often do that. Americans love to customize everything cars, guns and have custom made rods. I think he was very unfair to the people starting out saying not to build a rod since you cannot sell it. As most beginners only do it for their own rods. People that want factory rods should have factory rods people that want a custom rod should be able to get one. If I got a rod that the handle came off I would not go back four times with it. Maybe that is why he is against custom rods.

Jeff, I believe every opinion expressed, both for or against, or mixes of both are as important to the substance of this discussion as any other. In total honesty, I doesn't matter a wit to me if a fisherman, sorry, fisher-person, chooses to use a factory or a custom-built rod. Each has their proponents and opponents. As I stated in a previous post, the writer is the publisher of the site and therefore has the additional burden of ensuring his publications are not misrepresentative. Their is a difference, at least to me, between presenting an article as fact, and posting a comment within threads. Whether he views himself as an authority of the information he posts, or not, the viewing public in all probability, does, else visitors would not return to his site, and vendors would not sponsor their advertisements there. I hold Mr Castwell to a higher standard when it comes to presenting information. They are the registered holders of their domains, they are the publisher's. When they present information that is questionable, one of use, or all of us, should call them on it. Am I angry? Nah. Mr Castwell is entitled to his opinions. I do wish he had put a little more effort into his presentation and firmly stated his position. I believe he still would have received comments in support or against his opinions. But I believe the focus would have been more on the subject matter vs the motives behind the article. I think discussions involving numerous comments are great, regardless of which end a person sits on. I would like to see a hundred comments on this subject. The free exchange of opinions makes the site worth visiting.

Patrick, points well taken and I agree with your position. If I were to post an article, as opposed to an opinion in a discussion thread, I would endeavor to research the subject as completely as possible and differentiate between what the "facts" were as opposed to what my "opinions" were. I don't believe that Mr. Castwell did that and that is what has sparked this thread. And I certainly didn't take your post as coming across as angry. I think that whatever his motives may have been, the FAOL article has generated some enlightening and thought provoking conversation. Do I agree with what he said? Absolutely not. Do I believe that he may have run across a number of sub-standard custom built rods? No doubt. Again, I believe the burden falls back onto us as rod builders. We have two types of customers. First are the fishermen who already know the benefits of owning a custom built rod. Our job is hopefully already taken care of with them. The second group consits of those who are new to the world of custom rods. It is our job to educate them on the differences between a custom rod and a factory rod. Keep in mind that a lot of "factory" rods are out-wrapped. A good number of GLoomis rods used to be (maybe still are) wrapped my a lady who lived up the Toutle River a lot of miles from any factory. We can produce a superior rod for basically two reasons. We can truly develop a custom design for the customer. And we can pay attention to the details in the buidling of the rod. Again, I believe that it is up to us to educate our customers. With all of the facts, they can then make a choice as to whether they want a custom rod or wish to stick with store bought sticks.

Jeff Hunter

Jeff, Thanks for the follow-up. Good points all. I'm not surprised GLoomis would hire a lady to wrap rods, especially after seeing my wife wrap her first rod. It simple in design, but very well-crafted. They have the built in skill set from years of needlework or sewing. I'm not being sexist. It's just that I believe those types of skills learned early-on instill the kind of discipline to pay attention to detail.

Patrick Vernacchio

When I posted Mrs. Castwell's email to she said it was not intended for the professional custom rod builder. I did not see that in his article. Some of you know this on wrappers for rod companies a lot of wrapping is done out side the factories, they are paid by the rod so the more rods you wrap the more you make This type of out sourcing in common in the industry. I believe a lot of fisher people are confused by the word custom, they think custom means a fancy wrap or some decorative inlay makes a custom rod. They don’t realize or notice how the grip was and reelseat was designed for a special purpose or why a certain guide was used or placed where it was. We see this daily on building sites, someone asks what is the guide spacing should be on a blank or what reelseat should they use. Then this same party after 3 or 4 rods decides he wants to open a custom rod shop because someone liked the way he wrapped his rod. This is a no brainier WE have to educate the new builders what it really takes to be a custom rod builder. We also have to do more to educate our customers what it takes to make a custom rod and why his rod was designed in this manor. Well I rambled enough. With all the comments made we have to do more to educate the new buyer and the new builders and we would not see these type of threads
Good Wraps Bob

Fuel on the fire:

Factory rods are pretty darn good. At least until now some factories do offer nofault replacement warranties. Perhaps custom builders do, perhaps they don't. There are some reasons not to buy a custom built rod. Nobody owes it to custom builder to support them or to just write rosy things about the trade. I see nothing in Castwells article that seems totally wrong or inappropiate. It is a point of view that is defendable.

I have never bought a custom rod. Does that make me bad?

Dear fuel on the fire.
Thank you for setting us rodbuilders straight. We can all go home now.

Rightly or wrongly, agree or disagree, you have the right to post your opinion. When I responded to Mr Castwell, I didn't ask that he promote rod building, nor did I read any response from anyone else asking him to. I just called him on an article he wrote that played loose with the facts and presented no balance of any value. When it comes down to it, the disagreement came down to the fact that he mixed fact with fantasy, over-played areas like resale value, and made it darned difficult to discern when he spoke about first timers, then when he spoke about custom builders for profit, then when he spoke about people who build rods in general. And as of Friday, Nov 19, he continued to speak of those who disagreed with him as people who just didn't get it. And rather than have the decency to respond to my comments regarding his statements of Nov 19, he removed the whole thread. Rather than acknowledge that those who disagreed with him might have made some valid points, he choose to circle the wagons with his circle of regulars and continue to insist "we didn't get it." Rather than show so willingness to be open-minded, he choose to alienate other fisherpersons who may bring additional insight to a discussion.

So, if you don't see any reason to own a custom rod, great! If a factory rod is all you ever need, well, you're still contributing to the economy, of some country. Me, I know that at least my rod blank is made in the good old USA.

Get along little doggie, keep them wagons rollin'

Patrick Vernacchio